Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Queen Rania of Jordan: Another Divisive Wall - For me, and for so many other people around the world, the anniversary is bittersweet. As the people of Germany celebrate a wall coming down, the people of Palestine are overwrought by a wall going up.

Berlin Wall 20th Anniversary: Germany Celebrates Memory Of Its Falling - By The Huffington Post News Editors - BERLIN — With concerts and memorials on Monday, Germans will celebrate the day the Berlin Wall came crashing down 20 years ago.On that cold night, they danced atop the wall, arms raised in victory, hands clasped in friendship and giddy hope. Years of separation and anxiety melted into the unbelievable reality of freedom and a future without border guards, secret police, informers and rigid communist control.

It's payback time in Kabul In return for their pledges to guarantee huge majorities for Hamid Karzai in the August 20 election, the Afghan president had to make promises to a number of power brokers and warlords in the provinces of key ministries in the next government. Now Karzai has to deliver. - Gareth Porter

Mikhail Gorbachev Supports US Withdrawal From Afghanistan (Video) - By The Huffington Post News Editors - Mikhail Gorbachev supports a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.The former president of the Soviet Union spoke to CNN's John King Sunday on State Of The Union and after talking about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gorbachev suggested that the US revisit the Kremlin's efforts to control Afghanistan as the US plans its next move.

'Cronies and warlords' wait in the wings - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pulled no punches in saying that "cronies and warlords" should have no place in the future of a democratic Afghanistan. But the point is, cabinet and provincial governor appointments are a part of a complex political contract in Kabul and it is extremely doubtful that Karzai is in a position to oblige Britain, or any other country, even if he wanted to. - M K Bhadrakumar

Biopics: The pitfalls of filming Muhammad - Shahed Amanullah - I remember as an 8-year-old being taken to see the epic film The Message, an account of the life of the Prophet Muhammad produced by the late Moustapha Akkad in 1976 and going on (after some initial controversy) to be a film well-loved by Muslims throughout the world. The film respected Muslim sensibilities regarding portrayal of the prophet (his likeness was never seen on screen) and showed the emergence of Islam as having a positive impact on world history. As one of the only Muslims in my school, that film was a source of pride that helped reinforce my identity and portray vividly the stories I had until then only known from books at my mosque. Now, as my own son turns 8, I may have the opportunity to return the favour. The Guardian reports that Barrie Osborne, one of the producers of Lord of the Rings and The Matrix, is planning to produce an English-language biopic of the Prophet Muhammad.

Gabriel García Márquez: A Life by Gerald Martin Book Review Nobel laureate, global bestseller, magical realist and friend of Castro: which is the real Gabriel García Márquez? "Whatever you write," he told Gerald Martin, his biographer, "that is what I will be." Martin's landmark biography, 17 years in the writing, explains at length what García Márquez has meant by insisting that, despite its frequently magical content, his fiction is rooted firmly in real life. That real life, of course, is only as magical as the stories we tell about it, and if Martin has worked hard to separate history from myth- making, he also acknowledges the ways in which they overlap. One of the several family trees reproduced here is that of the Buendías, the fictional dynasty of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

A Line In The Sand - Uri Avnery - Mahmoud Abbdas is fed up. The day before yesterday he withdrew his candidacy for the coming presidential election in the Palestinian Authority. He feels betrayed. And the traitor is Barack Obama

Goldstone And Gaza By Jimmy Carter - Without ascribing blame to either of the disputing parties, it is imperative that the United States and the international community take steps to assure that the rebuilding of Gaza be commenced, and without delay. The cries of homeless and freezing people demand relief

Vast majority of Gaza children suffer PTSD symptoms - More than 40 years of Israeli military occupation have had a devastating impact on Palestinians in Gaza. Air strikes, artillery shelling, ground invasions, jet flybys and other acts of violence have all led to an epidemic of suffering among Gaza's most vulnerable inhabitants. The most recent studies indicate that the vast majority of Gaza's children exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.